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Building Organizational Resilience to Ensure Successful Change Management

By: Karen Chavez, Segal 

This article by Karen Chavez in Segal's Administration and Technology Consulting Practice discusses organizational resilience and how it can help public sector retirement plans cope with change and uncertainty. It also lays out steps to build a resilient organization that can anticipate, prepare, respond, and adapt to changes.

This is an excerpt from NCPERS Summer 2024 issue of PERSist.

Organizational resilience is the ability of an organization to adapt to changes, both expected and unexpected. Key characteristics of resilient organizations include the ability to anticipate, prepare, respond, and adapt to changes.  

The benefits of building a resilient organization are: 
 
  • An improved ability to navigate challenges and uncertainty
  • Increased organizational agility and adaptability in times of change
  • Enhanced employee morale and well-being during disruptions
  • Stronger long-term operational performance 

Being resilient is particularly advantageous when projects take longer than anticipated. An example is implementing a Pension Administration System (PAS), which, on average, takes 44% longer than projected, as Jeff Mills and Meir Schecter noted in their Spring 2024 PERSist article, “Creating a Realistic Schedule for Your New Pension Administration Solution (PAS).”  

Resiliency Improves an Organization's Capacity to Cope with Change 
Resiliency is important because organizations like public sector retirement plans don't experience one change at a time. Typically, staffing, budget, legislative and policy changes occur at the same time as a major project. The combination of administrative changes and long-running, concurrent or serial projects — change saturation, when too much change is happening simultaneously — can make it hard for an organization to absorb changes. Change fatigue is the sense of exhaustion that comes from being in a continual state of change. Change saturation and change fatigue, which are indicators of insufficient capacity for change, are often accompanied by a reduction in productivity. When capacity is stretched, individuals and teams lose focus and may feel stressed.
 
Without the proper preparation, this stress response can impact your project and your employees' well-being. It can also lead to morale issues as employees lose enthusiasm for a project or change, leading to a slowing of project progress and increased inefficiencies. Given the dynamic pace and variety of changes in the public retirement systems, you need both traditional change management for key projects and organizational resilience to set your team up for long-term success. 

The Key Differences Between Organizational Resilience and Traditional Change Management 
Traditional change management and organizational resilience both have their place and when done well, the two disciplines complement each other. Some of the main differences between traditional change management and organizational resiliency include:
 
  • Reactive vs. Proactive: Change management reacts to a defined need such as a project, while resilience builds proactive, global capabilities within the workforce and culture, like a growth mindset.
  • Focus: Change management focuses on the specific change defined by a project's scope, while resilience prepares the organization for anything.
  • Outcome: Change management aims for successful implementation of the change initiative, while resilience aims for successful implementation and long-term growth to prepare for the next change. 

Organizational resilience goes beyond traditional change management, building organizations that are stronger and better able to adapt to the dynamic changes taking place in the world. By building an adaptive response in anticipation of future changes alongside change management practices, your employees are better able to complete projects on time and set up your next projects on the path to success before they begin. 

Steps to Build Resiliency
What are the first steps?
 
  • Build resiliency into your strategic plan. Identify changes that are likely to occur in the next five to 10 years, including staffing changes, projects, potential threats, and opportunities that you might be able to anticipate.
  • Take a fearless inventory of your organization's change capacity. Look at the amount of change that has occurred over the past three years and the changes you want to introduce.
  • Foster a culture of learning and emotional intelligence. Part of your strategic plan should include a path for building trust and psychological safety and creating a culture of learning and growth. Your workforce needs to feel safe expressing concerns and trust those concerns will be taken into consideration.
  • Develop strategies and structures for effective transitions. Establish clear lines of communication that are compassionate and supportive and provide information and guidance. Be available and listen to how the change is being experienced.  

Organizational resilience is about building and maintaining robust and adaptive teams that can navigate through challenges and emerge stronger on the other side.  

In the NCPERS 2024 Public Retirement Systems Study, two of the top trends in business practices are updating or enhancing administrative software and updating or enhancing a mobile app for members. Both of these directly impact plan operations and require changes in how you deliver benefits. Changes like these make resilience a strategic imperative for long-term organizational success. 

Bio: Karen Chavez is a consultant in Segal's Administration and Technology Consulting (ATC) Practice. She has more than 20 years of experience in public sector pension and health benefits administration. Prior to joining Segal, Karen was the administrator of the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System Retiree Health Insurance Program. 

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